IGX

Heart Rate monitor question. I have occasional bouts of A - Fib. When I "think" i have gone out of rhythm I put on my Polar HR chest trap and watch and it will tell me if I am out by the beats per minute. I'm interested in getting a Fitbit or similar chest strapless reader - i understand it reads heart rate via a different method than my Polar with strap. The question is will the Fitbit etc show the atrial HR I need to know the same as my strapped one? I tried to contact Fitbit but I was 4 hours on the waiting list and gave that up. What other options are out there that might work for me that I could wear around all the time without hassle?

I'm just a dumb fireman, but any device that gives you an accurate HR reading should suit your purpose. Most folks I've seen with AFib feel something is wrong, and they're often right.

Or you could just pause, take your pulse (radial/wrist or carotid/neck) for a minute, and get an accurate rate.

johno wrote:I'm just a dumb fireman, but any device that gives you an accurate HR reading should suit your purpose. Most folks I've seen with AFib feel something is wrong, and they're often right.

Or you could just pause, take your pulse (radial/wrist or carotid/neck) for a minute, and get an accurate rate.

When your heart rate goes to 140 or 150 in A fib - it's not a strong beat - it's a kind of flutter thing and hard to feel with your fingers.

I have read many reviews of the Fitbit heart rate monitor. Hetr's the major thing knowledgeable reviewers all seemed to mention. The thing works when you are sitting or not exercising vigorously. What it doesn't do well is measure your HR well during strenuous exercise.

I decided against it for that reason, but it may work for your purposes. Here's an article on the pro and cons of the subject:

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shot ... well-maybe

I was given a garmin vivosmart hr for Christmas. It works really well for both sitting around heart rate and for use during exercise. I liked the heart rate on my wrist enough that I bought a garmin forerunner 235, which has the same on your wrist heart rate hardware but adds in gps geared towards running.

The fitbit things, and I've tried 2, the Surge and the Charge HR, didn't do it for me. I couldn't get good HR readings.

What are people doing for the 8 Weeks Out thing? Other than chest strap? Do any of the Fitbit or wrist gimmicks do an adequate job?

The wrist heart rate monitors work well depending on your skin tone, arm hair, and such as they use light shone through your skin. Being of mainly scottish/northern euro heritage they work great for me.

Polar h7 and ithlete...jamison's system is ok, but HRV can be very voodoo is in general the one thing i noticed, though, is that my hrv would tank 2 or 3 days before i started feeling sick.

One of the guys in my department is actually doing a study comparing accuracy of these vs. medical monitors. None of these have been validated for this purpose.

climber511 wrote:Heart Rate monitor question. I have occasional bouts of A - Fib. When I "think" i have gone out of rhythm I put on my Polar HR chest trap and watch and it will tell me if I am out by the beats per minute. I'm interested in getting a Fitbit or similar chest strapless reader - i understand it reads heart rate via a different method than my Polar with strap. The question is will the Fitbit etc show the atrial HR I need to know the same as my strapped one? I tried to contact Fitbit but I was 4 hours on the waiting list and gave that up. What other options are out there that might work for me that I could wear around all the time without hassle?

Not a bad idea to keep an eye on it. I am sure this has been taken care of, just asking: are you on an anticoagulant?

I am not sure strapless monitor will work that well. In AF arterial pulse is different from that of the heart, and you may get wrong number. Even the strap may not be that reliable, as I understand it measures the HR by infra-red absorption (I may be wrong).

Sangoma wrote:
I am not sure strapless monitor will work that well. In AF arterial pulse is different from that of the heart, and you may get wrong number. Even the strap may not be that reliable, as I understand it measures the HR by infra-red absorption (I may be wrong).

I have a Polar H7 chest strap that I use with the PolarBeat app and for the past year it's been giving me fucked up readings.

Manually checking my pulse, there's nothing hinky going on with my heart rate, and I don't feel poorly, but it's unnerving.

I wouldn't trust any of them to tell if you are in a. fib. They only tell heart rate and that is calculated as an average of beats over a period of time. It may tell when you are tachycardic (fast heart rate), but not the rhythm. Since a. fib. is so irregular, the heart rate can vary greatly in a short period of time (seconds). Even the machines we use for stress testing and EKGs only give an average over a period of time.

You could also be having short runs of some other supraventricular rhythm like SVT or MAT (which is also irregular) since you already have a history of a. fib. My own heart rate monitors can give a crazy high number for a bit and then return to normal and I know its not correct at these times.

If you just want heart rate, its probably fine, but I would check it against your own pulse just to be sure its correct.